A BID to buy a former college campus in Abergavenny and turn it into a ballet school was rejected by Coleg Gwent.

A Monmouthshire-based charity which runs a residential environmental study centre in Abergavenny for schools, colleges and universities in the UK, put forward a proposal to create a ballet school at The Hill education and conference centre, which closed in August.

Two bids submitted by Ty’r Morwydd Mulberry House environmental study centre in Pen y Pound to buy the 20 acre site which includes a 160-room building were rejected.

The first bid would have seen the site used to run residential cookery courses with celebrity chefs, allow the mental health service to care for the Victorian walled garden. In addition the charity would have extended its environmental courses to The Hill, and generated an income of £400,000 a year.

This was rejected and a revised proposal was submitted with a higher bid and plans to build a theatre on the site.

The Trustees said they would work in partnership with Coleg Gwent, offering them part of the land to ensure it still has revenue and to continue adult evening and weekend education classes and hold weddings and conferences.

Dr Olinga Ta’eed, chairman of the board of trustees at Mulberry House said the board is looking to buy its own premises as the current building is owned by the Royal borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

It is understood the Coleg Gwent site has been valued at £3.5million.

"We made an offer of 90 percent of an independent valuation and had the backing of Richmond Royal Ballet in London to develop a training facility," said Dr Ta’eed, who works in the mobile phone industry and lives in Abergavenny and who has a Phd in engineering.

"We want to bring ballet to Wales and create a national School of Ballet.

"Coleg Gwent said they liked our proposals but had to reject our final offer six weeks ago as our bid was lower than they expected.

"We cannot offer any more money and so have taken the bid as far as we can go.

"We would be delighted if Coleg Gwent would come back to the table."

Coleg Gwent marketing director Rob Gilvear would not disclose the reason for the rejection of the bid stating it was "confidential."

In February Coleg Gwent announced proposals to close The Hill Education and Conference facility, cut 19 courses and 74 jobs across its six sites in a bid to make £3.5million budget cuts.

Monmouthshire council agreed to lift a covenant restricting The Hill to educational use until 2016 in exchange for land at Coleg Gwent’s Rhadyr campus in Usk. This means the college could sell the building to developers interested in the site for other uses.